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THOMAS 


introductory  Address  . . .  1864 


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INTRODUCTORY  ADDRESS 


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NEW  YORK, 


OCTOBER    17tli,    1864, 


rr.   Gaillaed  Thomas,  M.D;, 


PROFESSOR    ADJUNCT   OF  OBSTETRICS. 


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NEW  YORK: 

W    II.  TRAFTON  &  CO,  STATIONERS  AND  PRINTERS 

55  &  S7  Broad-Street. 

1  864. 


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INTRODUCTORY  ADDRESS 


DELIVERED    AT    THE 


$0ilcp  $i  l^bgjsuto  mil  Jtowjeons, 


NEW  YORK, 


OCTOBER    17th,    1864, 


T.  G-aillakd  Thomas,  M.  D., 


PROFESSOR   ADJUNCT  OF  OBSTETRICS. 


NEW  YORK: 

W.  H.  TRAFTON  &  CO ,  STATIONERS  AND  PRINTERS, 

85  &  8T  Bkoad  Stbeet. 

1864. 


1 


At  a  meeting  of  the  Class  of  cne  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  held 
November  1st,  on  motion  of  Mr.  Russel  Withers,  Mr.  Samuel  St.  J.  Smith  was 
appointed  Chairman.     The  following  Resolutions  were  then  adopted  : 

1.  That  a  Committee  be  appointed  to  wait  on  Professor  T.  G.  Thomas,  and  to 
solicit  for  publication  the  manuscript  of  his  Introductory  Address,  delivered  before 
the  class,  October  17th. 

2.  That  Messrs.  Russel  Withers,  Joseph  S.  Winston,  and  Timothy  Bigelow 
constitute  that  Committee. 

In  accordance  with  these  instructions  the  following  correspondence  was  held 
with   Prof.   Thomas : 

To  T.   Gaillard  Thomas,  M.  D., 

Adjunct  Professor  of  Obstetrics, 

College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons. 

Bear  Sir :  We,  as  the  Committee  appointed  to  wait  on  you,  respectfully 
request  that  you  would  favor  us  with  a  copy  of  your  Introductory  Address, 
delivered  at  the  commencement  of  the  present  session,  in  order  that  it  may  be 
published. 

The  students  are  desirous  of  securing  for  themselves  and  their  friends  the 
pleasure  of  its  perusal,  and  for  the  public  the  advantages  which  must  follow  the 
dissemination  of  the  truths  which  it  embodies. 

They  will  also  value  it  highly  as  a  souvenir  of  yourself,  and  of  the  time  they  are 
now  spending  so  agreeably  and  so  profitably  under  your  instruction. 

RUSSEL  WITHERS,       ) 
JOSEPH  S.  WINSTON,  I  Committee. 
TIMOTHY  BIGELOW,  ) 
College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,    ) 
3rd  November,  1864.  ^ 


New  York,  November  Zrd,  1864. 
Messrs.  Russel  Withers,  Joseph  S.  Winston,  and  Timothy  Bigelow. 

Gentlemen :  —  It  affords  me  pleasure  to  enclose  to  you  the  manuscript  of  my 
Introductory  Address,  requested  by  you  as  a  Committee  of  the  Class. 

In  doing  so,  allow  me  to  thank  you  most  cordially  for  the  kind  tone  of  your 
communication,  and  to  assure  you  of  the  gratification  afforded  me  by  the  expressions 
of  good  will  which  it  conveys. 

Believe  me  very  truly  yours, 

T.  GAILLARD  THOMAS,  M.  D. 


ADDRESS 


Gentlemen  : 

The  kindness  of  my  associates  of  the  faculty  of  the  College 
of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  has  accorded  me  the  pleasing- 
task  of  welcoming  you  to  these  halls,  and  of  extending  to  you 
the  hand  of  friendly  greeting.  Most  sincerely  do  I  assure 
you  of  the  gratification  which  this  meeting  with  you  affords 
them.  As  they  look  around,  they  recognize  the  well-known 
faces  of  many,  who  for  the  past  two  years  have  met  them  in 
the  lecture  rooms ;  of  others  who,  having  passed  through 
their  collegiate  lives,  are  now  reflecting  credit  upon  the  in- 
stitution which  they  represent  in  the  noble  calling  of  their 
adoption  ;  and  of  still  many  more  who,  although  unknown 
to  them,  come  here  to-night  to  testify  their  confidence  by 
intrusting  them  with  the  guardianship  of  their  commencing 
pupilage.  Thus,  gentlemen,  the  remembrance  of  pleasant 
associations  with  some  of  you  is  to-night  mingled  with  the 
anticipation  of  an  acquaintance  with  others,  which  may  re- 
sult in  ties  of  mutual  respect,  esteem,  and  friendship. 

The  relation  of  teacher  and  pupil  is  one  ever  fraught  with 
interest :  but  few  can  appreciate  how  especially  it  is  so  be- 
tween the  instructor  and  student  of  medicine.  Should 
the  preceptors  of  an  academic  and  literary  course  be  in  any 
way  wanting  in  their  duties,  undoubtedly  evil  would  result 
from  their  sending  forth  numbers  of  badly-instructed  men  to 
influence  the  tone  of  society,  and  to  trammel  the  progress  of 
the  arts  and  sciences,  nay,  perchance,  the  progress  of  civiliza- 
tion itself.  But  compare  even  these  results  with  those  accru- 
ing from  the  dissemination  through  the  land  of  empirical  and 


ADDEESS 


ignorant  physicians  !  Think  of  the  grave  trusts  which  would 
be  inefficiently  dealt  with,  the  valuable  lives  which  would  be 
sacrificed,  the  hearths  which  would  be  desolated  by  their 
misguided  efforts !  Do  you  wonder,  then,  that  such  an  occa- 
sion as  this  should  be  one  of  peculiar  interest  to  your  teachers, 
in  view  of  the  weighty  responsibility  resting  upon  thern  in  ref- 
erence to  your  future  careers,  your  future  influence  on  the^ 
welfare  of  society  ? 

To  those  of  you  who  come  here,  for  the  first  time,  to-night, 
the  momentous  nature  of  the  choice  which  binds  you  to  an 
arduous  and  trying  profession  must  be  apparent.  Like  all 
other  avocations  in  life,  and  in  a  much  greater  degree  than 
most  of  them,  that  which,  to-night,  you  choose  requires  much 
of  self-denial,  labor,  and  anxiety;  but  in  compensation  for 
these,  it  offers  pleasures  which  will  by  their  power  fascinate 
and  enchain  you  as  its  devoted  followers,  in  spite  of  its 
trials. 

Who  among  you,  even  upon  its  threshold,  does  not  thrill 
with  pride  at  enrolling  his  name  as  a  disciple  of  an  art  which, 
coeval  with  society,  dates  back  to  the  earliest  literature  of  the 
Latin  tongue,  has  outlived  empires  and  nations,  was  the  chosen 
work  of  Christ  himself,  and  which  numbers  among  its  vo- 
taries the  names  of  Hippocrates  and  Galen,  Celsus  and  Avi- 
cenna,  Morgagni,  Pare,  Harvey,  and  a  host  of  others,  whose 
memories  shall  live  so  long  as  our  planet  shall  exist,  sur- 
rounded by  an  aureola  of  glory,  and  embalmed  by  the  grati- 
tude of  mankind  ?  This,  gentlemen,  is  the  profession  to  which 
you  now  declare  yourselves  prepared  for  devotion.  Be  not 
deceived  by  the  flippant  language  of  a  modern  radicalism^ 
which  would  have  you  believe  that  you  are  merely  joining 
a  feeble  sect,  which,  born  but  yesterday,  may  live  but  for  to- 
morrow, to  be  then  annihilated  by  a  more  recent  doctrine, 
the  offspring  of  the  brain  of  some  enthusiast  or  lunatic.  Be 
not  beguiled  into  the  belief  that  the  science  of  medicine  has 
been  and  is  as  changing  as  the  ocean's  shore;  that  what  it 
was  a  century  ago  is  almost  forgotten  in  what  it  is ;  and  that 
its  present  will  soon  be  blotted  out  by  its  future  of  a  few 


ADDRESS. 


years  to  come.  It  is  not  so.  The  profession  of  Hippocrates 
will  be  yours,  altered  and  illuminated,  it  is  true,  by  modern 
improvements ;  but  the  same  in  its  noble  object,  the  same  in 
its  exalted  requirements,  the  same  in  its  spirit  of  devotion, 
unchanged  by  the  surges  of  quackery  and  the  aspersions  of  an 
oft-deluded  public.  Like  some  stout  ship  which  has  crossed 
the  ocean,  dashing  its  billows  with  contempt  aside,  disre- 
garding its  tempests,  and  gallantly  resisting  its  thunders, 
the  science  of  medicine  has  passed  steadily  onwards  through 
centuries  of  time,  despising  the  attacks  of  charlatanism,  and 
at  our  day  stands  pre-eminently  firm  as  one  of  the  bulwarks 
of  society. 

He  who  would  enrol  under  such  a  banner,  should  carefully 
question  himself  as  to  his  fitness  to  meet  its  requirements ;  no 
sordid  thought  should  weigh  in  the  balance :  no  petty  interest 
should  guide  him.  He  whose  mental  capacity  will  not  permit 
him  to  rise  to  the  level  of  a  high  minded,  magnanimous,  and 
Christian  gentleman  should  seek  some  other  sphere  of  labor. 
It  has  been  well  said  that  "  the  profession  of  medicine  is  the 
noblest  of  professions,  the  meanest  of  trades/' 

"With  the  belief  that  you  have  weighed  this  evening's  choice 
with  care,  and  that  you  approach  the  course  of  life  which  it 
involves,  with  a  due  appreciation  of  its  responsibilities  and 
requirements,  let  me  say  a  few  words  as  to  the  method  by 
which  you  should  prepare  your  minds,  by  study  and  observa- 
tion, to  perforin  its  functions. 

Every  medical  class  is  divided,  by  the  character  of  the 
curriculum  adopted  in  this  country,  into  two  sections ;  the 
first  being  composed  of  those  who  are  passing  through  their 
novitiate,  and  devoting  themselves  to  the  theoretical  part  of 
the  course,  Anatomy,  Physiology,  Chemistry,  Materia  Medica, 
&c,  and  the  second  of  more  advanced  pupils,  who,  having 
finished  one  or  two  terms  of  study,  and  anticipating  soon  to 
take  the  doctorate,  are  studying  diseases  at  the  bedside  of  the 
sick.  The  courses  thus  followed  are  known  as  didactic  and 
clinical.  It  would  indeed  be  difficult  to  say  which  of  these  is 
the  more  important,  for  neither  should  in  anywise  be  neglected. 


ADDRESS 


The  first  prepares  the  mind  to  avail  itself  of  the  second, 
and  the  second,  followed  under  the  supervision  of  scientific 
practitioners,  teaches  the  student  how  to  investigate  disease, 
trains  his  mind  in  a  proper  mode  of  thinking,  and  makes  him 
aware  of  the  acuteness  of  observation  which  may  be  developed 
by  cultivation.  Were  I  called  upon,  however,  to  decide,  I 
should  advise  the  neglect  of  the  clinical  course,  rather  than 
the  didactic ;  for  without  a  scientific  basis  no  mind,  however 
brilliant  it  may  be,  can  ever  hope  for  excellence  in  medicine, 
and  will  likely  fall  into  the  channels  of  empiricism ;  while, 
with  a  thorough  groundwork  of  scientific  and  purely  theoret- 
ical knowledge,  a  keen  observer  may  make  himself  a  skillful 
and  able  practitioner. 

Let  me,  then,  urge  those  who  are  beginners,  in  the  strong- 
est terms,  to  confine  themselves  to  the  rudiments  of  their  edu- 
cation, and  to  avoid  the  folly  of  endeavoring  to  study  disease 
at  the  bedside,  the  history  of  which,  as  observed  by  others, 
the  means  of  investigating  which,  and  the  alterations  exerted 
by  which  on  the  physiological  condition  of  the  patient,  are 
unknown  to  him.  How  irrational  would  it  be  for  one  to 
study  a  case  of  poisoning  by  arsenic,  when  ignorant  of  the 
chemistry  of  the  poison,  and  the  anatomy  and  physiology  of  the 
stomach  which  it  has  injured !  And  yet,  this  is  just  what  the 
student  does  in  every  disease  which  he  essays  to  study  before 
passing  through  the  preliminary  course.  As  well  might 
the  scholar  strive  to  read,  who  has  neglected  to  master  the 
alphabet. 

Probably,  however,  a  majority  of  you  have  passed  through 
this  period,  and  are  prepared  to  enter  upon  the  study  of  the 
habits  and  character  of  the  great  enemy,  for  whose  destruc- 
tion our  order  was  and  is  created,  and  to  compass  whose  over- 
throw we  delve  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  fathom  the  depths 
of  ocean,  pluck  out  the  secrets  of  the  massive  rocks,  and  draw 
down  the  lightnings  of  heaven  itself. 

Were  I  to  advise  you  in  studying  disease  in  the  hospitals, 
dispensaries,  and  clinical  rooms,  to  avoid  studying  the  cure  of 
disease,  you  would  smile,  and  ask  "  why  then  study  at  all  ?" 


Address.  9 

I  will  not  go  so  far  as  to  give  this  counsel,  but  so  sure  am  I 
that  great  injury  has  been  done,  not  only  to  students,  but 
to  the  profession  itself,  from  the  earliest  times  to  the  present, 
by  a  devotion  to  mere  therapeutics,  causing  a  neglect  of 
points  which  would  have  directed  and  altered  the  means  of 
cure,  that  I  must  specially  guard  you  against  being  thus  dis' 
tracted  from  the  closest  observations  of  the  natural  phenomena, 
or,  as  it  has  been  termed,  the  natural  history  of  diseases.  By 
this  term  is  meant  the  phenomena,  characteristics,  duration, 
and  results  of  morbid  conditions  left  to  nature,  i.  e.  uninter- 
fered  with  by  medicines,  and  simply  guarded  from  extraneous 
disturbing  influences.  The  subject  has  been  greatly  neglected, 
for  centuries,  and  of  such  vital  importance  do  I  regard  it,  as 
bearing  upon  your  future  proficiency  as  physicians,  that  I 
make  it  my  theme  for  this  evening's  address.  Remain  igno- 
rant of  it,  and  you  shut  the  gates  of  the  avenue  which  leads 
to  progress  in  medicine ;  master  it,  and  your  therapeutic  know- 
ledge will  become  certain,  and  its  application  a  science.  Tou 
would  naturally  conclude,  that  the  first  study  which  would 
have  engaged  the  attention  of  the  pioneers  in  the  art  of  heal- 
ing, would  have  been  that  of  the  nature  of  the  affections  which 
they  desired  to  cure,  so  that  they  might  have  learned  what 
assistance  was  required  ;  and  by  a  comparison  of  the  results  of 
unaided,  with  aided  cases,  concluded  how  far  they  had  met  with 
success  in  their  efforts.  But,  unfortunately,  in  the  infancy  of 
our  profession,  tin's  was  not  done.  Men  leaped  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  all  diseases  tended  to  death,  and  at  once  proceeding 
to  give  aid  by  a  variety  of  means,  soon  blinded  themselves  as 
to  the  results.  When  the  malady  followed  its  natural  course 
to  recovery,  they  laid  to  their  souls  the  flattering  unction  that 
they  had  cured  it ;  and  when  their  interference  turned  the 
scale  for  death,  they  attributed  the  unfortunate  issue  to  the 
malignancy  of  the  disorder  which  had  resisted  their  well 
directed  efforts.  All  this  made  more  and  more  impenetrable 
the  veil  which  hung  over  nature's  dealing  with  disease,  and 
the  ignorance  thus  fostered  is,  for  me,  the  key  to  many  mys- 
teries in  our  science.     It  reconciles  the  similarity  of  result 


10  ADDRESS. 

obtained  by  modes  of  practice  diametrically  opposed;  gives 
me  the  reason  for  the  success  of  systems  of  charlatanism,  based 
upon  the  most  preposterous  tenets,  and  explains  the  confidence 
felt,  even  by  wise  men,  in  therapeutic  plans  which  were  utter- 
ly without  merit. 

To  convince  you  of  the  truth  of  these  views,  I  will  claim 
your  attention,  as  we  take  a  retrospective  glance  at  some  of 
the  methods  of  treatment  adopted  for  diseases  during  the  past 
two  centuries,  and,  having  laid  them  before  you,  I  shall  com- 
pare their  results  with  those  accruing  from  an  entire  neglect 
of  medication,  and  leaving  the  disorders  to  the  hand  of 
nature. 

Should  we  discover  that  nature,  unaided,  accomplishes 
better  results  than  many  of  these  methods  have  done  by  active 
interference,  then  is  it  plain,  that  such  interference  was  in- 
jurious. 

Should  we,  after  arriving  at  this  conclusion,  discover  no 
process  by  which  nature  can  be  aided,  and  her  efforts  made 
more  effective,  it  would  plainly  be  our  duty  to  leave  her  to 
her  work. 

But,  should  we  learn  that  a  given  plan  of  treatment  pos- 
sesses the  power  of  adding  to  her  efficiency,  shortening  the 
natural  course  of  disease,  and  diminishing  suffering  during 
its  progress,  it  is  equally  plain  that  its  adoption  is  pointed 
out,  both  by  reason  and  humanity. 

It  is  truly  astonishing  to  look  back  into  the  musty  tomes  of 
by-gone  centuries,  and  see  the  great  changes  in  the  treatment 
of  diseases  which  have  occurred,  from  time  to  time,  as  we  ad- 
vance to  the  present ;  and  still  more  wonderful  is  it  to  learn, 
from  incontestable  evidence,  that  although  incongruous,  con- 
tradictory, and  often  entirely  opposed,  they  all  cured  the  ills 
of  flesh,  and  consequently  commanded  the  confidence  of  those 
who  practiced  them,  and  those  who  relied  on  them  for  relief. 

Let  me  cite  for  example  the  practice  of  Sydenham,  whom 
I  quote  as  the  best  representative  of  the  physicians  of  the 
Seventeenth  Century,  about  the  middle  of  which  he  flourished. 
His   directions   for   treating   Pleurisy    (which,   however,   he 


ADDRESS.  11 

evidently  confounded  with  Pneumonia)  are  these :  "  Bleed 
from  the  arm  of  the  affected  side  ten  ounces. 

Red  Poppy  "Water,     -------       3  iv. 

Sal  Prunella,     ---------        3!. 

Syr.  Yiolets,      ---------       3  i. 

M.  et  ft.  haust,  to  be  taken  directly  after  the  first  bleeding. 

Sweet  Almonds,     --------  v. 

Melon  Seeds,      ---------  5  ss. 

Gourd  Seeds,     -------.-  3  ss. 

White  Poppy  Seeds,        ------  3  iii- 

Barley  Water,        --------  o.  ss. 

Rose  Water,      ---------  3  il. 

Sugar  Candy, - .  -    -  q.  s. 

M.  et  ft.  emulsio  secudem  artem.      §  iv.  to  be  taken  every 
four  hours. 

Pectoral  Decoction,     -     -     -     -     -     -     -  o.  ji. 

Syr.  Yiolets,       .........  ^  Ss. 

Syr.  Maidenhair,     ........  ^  ss. 

Sugar  Candy,     ---------  q.  s. 

M.  et  ft.  Apozem.,  one-half  pint  to  be  taken  daily. 
We  stop  here  for  breath  (as   the   poor   patient   likewise 
probably  tried  to  do),  but  this  is  not  all. 

01.  Sweet  Almonds, §  ii. 

Syr.  Yiolets,       ---------  s  i. 

Syr.  Maidenhair,     --------  3"  i. 

Sugar  Candy,     ---------  q.  s. 


12  ADDRESS. 

M.  et  ft.  linctus,  to  be  taken  frequently. 
Oil  of  Sweet  Almonds  or  fresh  Linseed  Oil  may  be  taken 
alone. 

£. 

01.  Sweet  Almonds,     -------  |  i. 

01.  Lilies,       -■---.'■----■.-_  g  i. 

Ointment  Marsh  Mallows,    -'■■-•■-'-     -  §  i. 

M.  et  ft.  lint.,  to  be  rubbed  on  the  affected  part  night  and 
morning. 

Lay  a  cabbage  leaf  over  the  part,  repeat  the  bleeding  three 
times  more  (i.  e.  ten  ounces  each  time),  so  as  in  all  to  make 
four  days,  as  long  as  the  pain  and  dyspnoea  continue." 

This  is  copied  verbatim  from  the  writings  of  Sydenham,  the 
medical  exponent  of  his  time  ;  compare  it  with  the  treatment 
of  a  case  of  Pleurisy  or  Pneumonia  at  our  day  by  our  most 
enlightened  practitioners;  a  few  cups  are  applied  to  the  side 
affected,  an  arterial  sedative  or  sudorific  is  administered,  all 
the  functions  of  the  body  are  carefully  watched,  the  diet  made 
simple  and  nutritious,  and  our  success,  as  proved  by  statistics, 
is  infinitely  superior  to  that  of  our  predecessors. 

It  would  be  useless  to  quote  more ;  this  is  a  fair  and  honest 
example  of  the  therapeutics  of  those  times.  The  disease 
seemed  to  be  regarded  as  an  enemy  besieged  in  a  town,  which 
was  to  be  destroyed,  even  at  the  risk  of  destroying  the  town 
itself. 

In  the  first  quarter  of  the  Sixteenth  Century,  we  are  in- 
formed by  Ambrose  Pare,  who  lived  at  that  period,  that  the' 
surgeons  treated  wounds  by  separating  their  lips  and  pouring 
in  boiling  oil  to  check  the  flow  of  blood.  Unquestionably, 
the  wounds  thus  treated  generally  got  well,  or  the  practice 
would  have  been  discontinued.  To-day  these  same  wounds 
would  be  treated  by  the  application  of  cloths,  soaked  in  clear 
water,  and  still  do  they  go  on  to  recovery.  Both  methods, 
though  so  opposite  and  unlike,  resulted  in  the  same  issue — 
recovery. 


ADDRESS.  13 

But  we  need  not  refer  to  past  history  to  find  plans  of  treat- 
ment as  much  at  variance  with  each  other  as  those  just 
mentioned  are,  with  the  views  of  the  present,  and  yet  are 
supported  by  men  of  rare  judgment,  and  practised  with  suc- 
cess in  similar  diseases. 

In  our  own  time,  we  see  M.  Bouillaud,  of  Paris,  bleeding  in 
Pneumonia,  Pleurisy,  Pericarditis,  Rheumatism,  and  many 
other  affections,  in  which,  Dr.  Todd,  of  London,  systematically 
stimulated  with  brandy  and  fed  upon  nutritious  food ;  and  not 
only  did  they  do  so,  but  their  respective  schools  endorsed  then- 
views,  each  with  equal  warmth ;  imitated  their  leaders,  and 
claimed  respectively  the  most  brilliant  results.  Now  it  is 
evident  that  both  schools  could  not  have  been  right,  one  at 
least  must  have  done  injury  to  the  diseases  treated,  if  it  be 
admitted  that  the  other  did  good ;  and  yet,  in  the  face  of  all 
this,  I  tell  you  that  my  belief  is  that  both  parties  reported 
recoveries  truthfully,  and  that  both  parties  were  sincere  in 
their  belief  that  they  contributed  to  the  gratifying  results. 

There  must  be  a  key  to  this  mystery,  a  solution  of  this 
paradox.  For  me,  there  is  none  other  than  this,  that  the  dis- 
eases treated  had  a  natural  tendency  to  recovery,  and  that 
the  Almighty  has,  in  his  infinite  wisdom,  endowed  the  ani- 
mal frame  with  an  inherent  curative  power  which  often  de- 
feats the  machinations  of  misguided  men. 

If  the  professors  of  medicine  have  been  misled  by  a  neglect 
of  the  study  of  the  natural  phenomena  of  diseases,  what  must 
have  been  the  baneful  results  of  the  complete  ignorance  of 
this  subject  on  the  part  of  the  people  ?  It  has  offered  a  wide 
field  to  quackery,  and  caused  whole  communities  to  pass  un- 
der the  yoke  of  deception  and  imposture.  This  has  been  so 
in  all  ages,  and  at  no  period  more  so  than  the  present ;  for, 
alas!  we  live  in  the  age  of  quackery,  and  doubly,  alas! 
is  America  proving  the  very  Canaan  of  the  tribe.  If  the 
sons  of  Paracelsus  ever  looked  forward  to  a  promised  land, 
they  have  found  it.  Columbus  discovered  their  true  El 
Dorado. 

It  is  an  undoubted  fact  that  no  system  of  charlatanism  has 


14  ADDRESS. 

ever  flourished  which  has  not  reported,  and  reported  truth- 
fully, thousands  of  recoveries  under  its  ministrations,  how- 
ever injurious  or  harmless  its  modes  of  treatment.  However 
at  variance  their  doctrines,  however  ridiculous  their  tenets, 
however  inefficient  their  therapeutics,  all  which  have  run 
the  course  which  is  set  before  systems  of  imposture,  have  un- 
questionably published  to  the  world  recoveries  from  grave 
disorders,  which  no  man,  who  consented  to  draw  the  scales 
of  prejudice  from  his  eyes,  could  gainsay.  But  to  be  con- 
vinced of  the  truth  of  this  apparently  singular  statement,  fol- 
low me  as  I  investigate  a  few  of  the  popular  fallacies  which 
have  appeared  during  the  past  hundred  years. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  last  century  a  physician,  named 
Perkins,  who  resided  in  Connecticut,  made  a  most  wonderful, 
startling,  and  momentous  discovery.  He  discovered  that 
certain  metallic  substances  had,  when  applied  to  the  animal 
body  and  passed  along  it  like  the  poles  of  a  battery,  the  glo- 
rious power  of  drawing  out  diseases,  very  much  as  the  mag- 
net would  draw  a  needle  from  your  pocket.  In  accordance 
with  this  knowledge,  he  constructed  two  metallic  stems, 
about  3  inches  long,  blunt  at  one  extremity  and  pointed  at 
the  other,  one  being  composed  apparently  of  brass,  and  the 
other  of  steel,  though  this  is  not  certain,  as  (in  a  moment  of 
moral  obliquity,  doubtless)  the  discoverer  obtained  a  patent 
for  and  kept  them  secret. 

ISTo  sooner  was  the  great  discovery  of  Dr.  Perkins  made  known 
than  the  trumpet  of  fame  spread  its  reputation  with  lightning 
speed  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth.  Certificates  assert- 
ing most  excellent  cures  from  the  highest  dignitaries  of  the 
land,  from  judges  and  generals,  from  leading  merchants,  from 
ladies  eminent  for  charity,  and  I  need  not  say  great  numbers 
of  endorsements  from  eminent  divines,  poured  in  like  a 
paper  flood. 

Dr.  Benjamin  Douglass  Perkins  went  to  London,  so  as  to 
give  England  an  opportunity  of  benefiting  by  the  great  in- 
vention, and  soon  it  was  discovered  that  what  would  draw  out 
disease  from  an  American  would  likewise  act  upon  an  Eng- 


ADDRESS.  15 

lishman,  for  great  cures  soon  occurred,  and  the  land  of  our 
forefathers  applauded  to  the  echo  this  great  boon.  Other 
countries  of  Europe  experienced  the  influence  of  the  reform, 
and  especially  did  it  meet  with  success  in  Denmark.  Large 
numbers  of  cures  were  published  daily ;  pains  were  removed 
as  if  by  magic  as  the  tractors  were  passed ;  swellings  visibly 
went  down,  tumors  disappeared,  the  lame  walked,  the  blind 
saw,  and  miracles  seemed  about  to  be  revived.  Dr.  Wor- 
thington  Hooker,  of  JSTew  Haven,  a  townsman  of  Dr.  Perkins, 
to  whose  interesting  history  I  am  indebted  for  this  sketch, 
declares  that  he  has  now  in  his  library  a  volume  of  200 
printed  pages,  containing  the  records  of  great  numbers  of 
undoubted  cures. 

Meanwhile  Dr.  Perkins  sold  thousands  of  tractors  at  five 
guineas  a  pair,  and  even  medical  men  used  and  endorsed 
them.  The  nobility  of  England,  anxious  to  benefit  the  poor 
by  disseminating  the  great  blessing,  seized  upon  it  with 
avidity,  and  at  once  established  a  large  infirmary.  This  was 
founded  with  all  the  pomp  and  circumstance  which  charac- 
terises inaugurations  by  our  transatlantic  brethren,  and  was 
under  the  patronage  of  the  first  men  of  the  land.  Lord  Rivers 
was  president  of  the  board  of  governors,  and  a  long  list  of 
titled  names  followed  his  as  vice-presidents.  I  have  not  men- 
tioned to  you,  because  I  thought  it  needless  to  do  so,  that  in  all 
this,  the  ladies  were  most  enthusiastic,  for  in  what  great  work 
are  they  not  foremost?  The  constitution  of  the  infirmary, 
in  acknowledging  this  fact,  provided  that  ladies  should  have 
the  right  to  vote  by  proxy.  In  March,  1802,  the  number  of 
cures,  computed  as  effected  by  the  tractors,  amounted  to  one 
million  five  hundred  thousand.  Well  was  the  fortunate  Dr. 
Perkins  sustained  in  the  language  with  which  he  closed  his 
report,  "  It  is  believed  that  no  medical  remedy  yet  discovered 
has  been  supported  by  so  many  well  authenticated  and  im- 
portant cures  performed  in  so  short  a  time." 

In  spite  of  all  the  evidence  adduced,  there  were  sceptics  in 
the  land,  (but  alas,  gentlemen,  where  do  we  not  find  sceptics?) 
who  declared  that  all  this  was  the  effect  of  the  imagination, 


16  ADDRESS. 

and  one  Dr.  Haygarth,  making  a  pair  of  tractors  of  wood, 
which  he  painted  to  resemble  those  of  Perkins,  really  did 
produce  the  same  results,  curious  as  it  may  appear.  But  these 
sceptics  were  soon  put  to  confusion,  and  "  Perkinism,"  as  the 
discovery  was  called,  marched  in  triumph  through  the  world, 
and  the  "  Perkinean  Institute,"  under  the  skillful  management 
of  the  philanthropic  Lord  Rivers  and  the  noble  vice-presi- 
dents, became  a  blessing  to  suffering  humanity.  All  this 
occurred,  and  was  fully  reported  in  1802 ;  we  now  live  sixty- 
two  years  after  that  time.  Where  now  is  Perkinism,  and  the 
Perkinean  Institute,  and  Perkins'  tractors  ?  History  is  silent, 
and  when  you  ask  society,  it  hangs  its  head  and  blushes  slight- 
ly at  its  own  credulity.  Do  you  doubt  that  recoveries  oc- 
curred under  this  system  ?  I  do  not  for  a  moment ;  for  how 
could  Lord  Rivers,  and  the  titled  vice  presidents,  and  the 
clergymen  who  gave  certificates,  and  the  ladies  who  voted  by 
proxy,  all  have  been  deluded  ?  They  were  not  deluded,  gentle- 
men, they  merely  called  recoveries,  cures ;  that  was  all. 

From  the  days  of  Hippocrates  down  to  the  present,  abun- 
dant recognition  of  the  value  of  water  in  the  cure  of  disease, 
may  everywhere  in  medical  literature  be  found.  It  was, 
however,  only  regarded  as  a  means  of  cure,  no  one  pretend- 
ing to  view  it  as  a  system,  till  the  beginning  of  this  century, 
when  the  idea  of  so  doing  occurred  to  the  untutored  mind  of 
a  Silesian  peasant,  named  Vincent  Priessnitz.  Discarding  the 
knowledge  gained  by  2,000  years  of  patient  medical  research, 
putting  at  naught  the  authority  of  all  the  physicians  of  the 
world,  this  bold  innovator  reduced  the  entire  field  of  thera- 
peutics to  the  use  of  water.  He  maintained  that,  let  the  na- 
ture of  the  affection  be  what  it  might,  it  could  be  readily 
cured  by  water,  which  was  the  only  means  to  be  employed. 
"Were  the  story,  as  thus  far  told,  new  to  you,  you  would  at 
once  conclude  that  the  poor  fellow  was  consigned  to  some 
well-regulated  asylum,  where  his  mind  might  be  restored  to 
health.  But  this  was  not  done  :  his  doctrine  found  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  believers  all  over  the  civilized  world ;  volume 
after  volume  was  written  upon  it,  and  in  a  short  time  the 


ADBKES8.  17 

wisest  and  best  men  of  this  country  and  of  Europe,  were 
splashing  in  every  conceivable  kind  of  bath,  with  all  the  con- 
fidence which  would  have  possessed  one  who  entered  of  old 
the  pool  of  Bethesda.  Upwards  of  200  institutions  for  the 
treatment  of  diseases  on  this  plan  were  established  in  diiferent 
parts  of  the  world,  and  many  of  these  still  exist ;  but  time, 
the  great  adjuster  of  human  affairs,  has  well  nigh  robbed  the 
system  of  its  livery  of  charlatanism,  and  many  physicians 
avail  themselves  of  these  well-regulated  hygienic  establish- 
ments, as  one  means  of  curing  disease.  Thus  "  Hydropathy"  has 
been  brought  to  the  occupancy  of  the  position  which  it  has 
held  in  all  ages,  and  we  have  to  thank  Vmcent  Priessnitz  for 
doing  much  to  systematise  and  utilise  it.  That  thousands  of 
recoveries  took  place  under  it,  when  practised  to  the  exclusion 
of  all  medication,  and  that  some  cures  were  effected  by  it,  no 
candid  mind  can  doubt. 

Some  years  ago,  there  arose  *in  this  country  a  medical 
sect,  which  owed  its  origin  to  an  illiterate,  though  shrewd 
man,  which  for  a  time  had  many  adherents  in  all  portions 
of  the  land,  and  promised,  as  the  multitude  thought,  to 
supplant  the  necessity  of  educated  physicians,  by  so  simpli- 
fying the  entire  matter  that  any  one  could  practise  with 
success.  From  the  name  of  its  founder,  Thompson,  this 
system  received  the  name  of  "  Thompsonianism,"  or  "  Thomp- 
sonism ;"  and  from  the  fact  of  its  discarding  all  mineral 
medicines,  it  was  likewise  called  the  "  Botanical  Practice." 
In  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Thompson,  all  diseases  were  due  to 
a  check  of  perspiration,  and  the  only  method  of  curing 
them  was  their  expulsion  through  the  skin.  To  accomplish 
this,  he  relied  almost  entirely  upon  vapor  baths,  lobelia, 
and  capsicum.  At  the  time  that  this  doctrine  was  promul- 
gated I  resided  in  the  southern  portion  of  this  country,  and 
well  do  I  remember  the  furor  which  it  created.  Whole 
communities  were  converted  to  it ;  men  who  refused  to  give 
credence  to  it  were  regarded  as  prejudiced,  or  besotted  by 
the  old  practice,  and  many  prominent  citizens,  who  had  hun- 
dreds of  beings  dependent  on  them  for  guidance,  absolutely 


18  ADDRESS. 

discharged  their  physicians,  under  the  absurd  belief  that  they 
would  be  able  to  take  charge  of  the  sick  and  perform  the 
functions  of  the  most  difficult  of  professions,  without  knowl- 
edge or  experience.  This  was  not  done  by  the  half-educated 
or  ignorant,  but  by  refined  and  intelligent  gentlemen,  men 
who  would  have  ridiculed  a  like  infatuation  on  any  other 
subject.  Many  of  my  own  friends  yielded  to  the  influences 
which  surrounded  them,  and  were  swept  into  the  vortex  of 
this  barefaced  imposture.  Among  them  I  saw  a  great  many 
cases  treated,  and  I  remember  well  that  I  saw  a  great  many 
recoveries.  Indeed,  in  vigorous  persons,  the  success  of  the 
plan  was  by  no  means  contemptible ;  it  was  only  in  the  very 
young  and  aged  that  it  appeared  particularly  fatal.  Scarce 
half  a  century  has  passed  since  the  inauguration  of  Thompso- 
nianism,  and  now  all  that  we  see  of  it  is  an  occasional  relic 
in  some  small  country  village ;  scattered  and  insignificant 
relics,  which,  though  like  those  of  the  mastodon,  they  remind 
us  of  the  great  body  of  which  they  formed  a  part,  will  never, 
like  them,  serve  as  material  for  its  reconstruction, 

An  example  of  a  still  more  wonderful  popular  delusion 
than  any  of  those  mentioned,  and  a  good  demonstration  of 
the  tendency  of  diseases  to  recovery,  presents  itself  in  a  sys- 
tem which  has  not  yet  lived  its  allotted  time,  but  which  is 
fast  approaching  the  terminus  of  its  existence.  I  allude  to  "  Ho- 
moeopathy," which  was  inaugurated  by  Samuel  Hahnemann, 
a  native  of  Messein,  in  Germany,  about  the  commencement 
of  this  century.  This  most  extraordinary  man  pretended  to 
an  especial  illumination  as  to  a  law  which  governed  the  cure 
of  all  diseases,  and  openly  declared  his  belief  that  his  discov- 
ery would  revolutionize  the  mistaken  notions  which  had 
existed  since  the  birth  of  Christ.  You  are  aware  that  his 
system  rests  upon  the  pretended  fact  that  diseases  are  cured 
by  like  morbid  states,  which  he  proposed  to  develop  in  the 
economy,  by  the  administration  of  drugs,  infinitessimally  di- 
vided. A  curious  feature  of  this  most  remarkable  doctrine 
was  the  administration,  in  infinitessirnal  doses,  of  substances 
of  which  we  take  a  large  amount  every  day,  as  food.     For 


ADDBESS.  19 

example,  to  a  man  eating,  daily,  whole  grains  of  animal  char- 
coal on  his  roast  beef,  and  vegetable  charcoal  on  his  toasted 
bread,  he  would  administer  less  than  the  ten-thousandth  part 
of  a  grain,  with  the  hope  that  this,  "  potentised,"  as  he  ex- 
pressed it,  by  being  rubbed  in  a  mortar,  would  be  more 
powerful  than  the  number  of  grains  eaten  as  food. 

In  reference  to  the  law,  let  me  remark,  that  the  discovery 
of  that  or  any  other  law,  which  would  relieve  our  noble  art 
from  its  present  uncertainties  and  put  it  on  a  level  with  the 
exact  sciences,  would  be  hailed  with  joy  by  every  one  of  its 
followers.  The  very  millennium  of  medicine  would  have 
arrived,  and  the  honest  and  sincere  physicians  of  the  whole 
world  would  hasten  to  bow  down  in  homage  before  the 
heaven-sent  messenger.  Had  the  discovery  of  Perkins,  or 
Priessnitz,  or  Thompson,  or  Hahnemann,  been  true;  had 
they  been  able  to  stand  the  test  of  experiment ;  it  would 
have  carried  joy  to  the  breast  of  every  votary  of  the  healing 
art,  and  each  would  have  shouted  "  Eureka"  as  he  embraced 
it.  But,  alas !  gentlemen,  the  long-sought  law  is  not  yet 
found ;  it  may  be  to-morrow,  but  it  is  not  to-day ;  and  worse 
still,  we  have,  so  far,  no  evidence  whatever  than  any  such 
law  exists. 

This  is  a  digression  :  let  us  return.  Hahnemann,  in  pur- 
suance of  the  doctrine  already  enunciated,  divided  the  drugs 
which  he  employed  into  the  smallest,  imaginable  particles, 
and  gave  great  powers  to  these,  by  agitation  and  trituration 
with  alcohol  or  sugar.  Let  me  inform  you  how  the  homoao- 
pathic  dilutions  are  arrived  at,  and  then  make  some  compu- 
tations, with  the  intent  of  conveying  to  your  minds  a  correct 
idea  of  the  amount  of  medicine  which  they  will  each  contain. 
One  drop  of  a  pure  tincture  (say  for  instance,  tincture  of 
opium,  called  laudanum)  is  added  to  one  hundred  drops  of 
alcohol  to  make  the  first  dilution  ;  one  drop  of  this  (which 
contains  one-hundredth  of  the  original  drop)  is  added  to 
one  hundred  drops  of  alcohol  to  make  the  second  ;  one  drop 
of  this  is  added  to  one  hundred  drops  of  alcohol  to  make  the 
third,  and  so  on  to  the  thirtieth,  and  even  the  three  thou- 


20  ADDRESS. 

sandth,  which  has  been  employed  by  many  homceopatbists. 
It  is  evident  to  yon,  that,  knowing  this,  we  can  easily  cal- 
culate the  strength  of  each  dilution. 

By  the  same  process,  drugs  are  triturated  with  sugar,  and 
divided  into  pellets  of  a  given  size.  In  the  Organ  on  (the  text 
book  of  homoeopathy)  Hahnemann  says,  at  page  289,  "  It  holds 
good,  and  will  continue  to  hold  good,  as  a  homoeopathic  thera- 
peutic maxim,  not  to  be  refuted  by  any  experience  in  the  world, 
that  the  best  dose  of  the  properly  selected  remedy  is  always 
the  very  smallest  one,  in  one  of  the  high  dynamisations  (x  or 
the  30th  dilution),  as  well  for  acute  as  chronic  diseases." 
Now  let  us  suppose  one  grain  of  camphor  divided  into  pellets 
of  the  30th  dilution ;  each  pellet  will  consist  of  a  mass  of  su- 
gar, with  the  decillionth  of  a  grain  of  camphor  added  to  it. 
An  entire  grain  of  camphor  is  about  the  size  of  the  head  of  a 
large  pin,  and  this  mass  it  is  which  is  divided  into  decillionths. 
Suppose  now  that  these  pellets  were  arranged  side  by  side  so 
as  to  make  a  straight  line  ;  that  line  would  extend  from  earth 
to  a  point  considerably  beyond  the  moon.  Yet  Hahnemann 
declared  that  each  of  these  pellets  would  contain  enough  of 
the  original  grain  of  camphor,  not  only  to  aifect  the  system, 
but,  in  time,  to  produce  a  disease  in  it. 

The  population  of  the  earth  is  generally  stated  as  being  nine 
hundred  millions,  for  convenience  we  will  call  it  one  thousand 
millions.  It  is  evident  that  the  grain  of  camphor,  the  size  of 
a  pin's  head,  divided  into  billionths  even,  would  give  a  great 
number  of  doses  to  every  person  on  the  globe,  for  a  billion  is 
a  million  millions,  and  this  number  of  doses  is  to  be  divided 
among  only  one  thousand  millions.  If  this  is  true  of  the  billionth 
of  a  grain,  what  must  it  be  of  the  decillionth,  which  is  thus 
reached  in  arithmetical  computation ;  first  we  have  a  million, 
then  a  billion,  then  a  trillion,  then  a  quadrillion,  quintillion, 
sextillion,  septillion,  octillion,  nonillion,  and  then  a  decillion, 
which  was  Hahnemann's  favorite  dose.  It  is  evident  that  to 
reduce  this  grain  to  decillionths,  it  would  require  a  large  mass 
of  sugar.  This  has  never  been  accurately  computed  for  the 
decillionth,  that  I  know  of;  but  it  has  for  a  quintillionth, 


ADDRESS.  21 

which  is  an  infinitely  smaller  dilution,  and  for  this,  it  would 
require  for  the  grain,  the  size  of  a  pins  head,  sixty-one  globes 
of  sugar,  each  equal  in  size  to  the  earth. 

"When  these  facts  are  brought  to  the  notice  of  horuoeopa- 
thists,  many  of  them  at  once  declare  that  they  do  not  regard 
Hahnemann  as  correct,  in  believing  in  the  high  dilutions ;  and 
the  sect  has,  I  believe,  divided  itself  into  low  dilutionists,  or 
those  who,  in  spite  of  their  apostle,  use  the  tenth  and  twelfth 
dilutions,  and  the  high  dilutionists  or  those  who  go  as  high 
as  the  3,000th.  Now,  those  who  pretend  to  use  the  large 
doses  of  homoeopathy,  are  scarcely  in  a  more  tenable  position 
than  their  brethren  ;  for  it  has  been  clearly  proven,  by  careful 
calculation,  that  the  strength  of  the  tenth  dilution  is  equal  to 
one  drop  of  any  tincture  (say  Laudanum)  dissolved  in  a 
mass  of  fluid  500  times  greater  than  the  Lake  of  Geneva.  The 
eleventh  dilution  would  require  a  mass  of  water  greater  than 
the  Mediterranean  sea,  for  one  drop  of  Laudanum,  of  which 
the  common  dose  is  twenty -five  drops ;  and  the  twelfth  could 
scarcely  be  accomplished  in  a  sea  extending  over  the  surface 
of  the  whole  earth,  and  500  fathoms  deep. 

You  smiled,  a  while  ago,  at  the  belief  in  Perkins'  tractors ; 
you  ridicule  the  belief  in  clairvoyants  and  fortune  tellers ;  and 
yet  do  they  compare  with  the  belief  in  all  this  ?  Now,  with 
these  facts,  there  are  but  two  ways  to  deal :  first,  to  deny  their 
being  facts ;  or  secondly,  to  agree  that  they  prove  the  system 
preposterous.  I  do  not  know  what  part  of  the  statements 
you  can  doubt ;  they  are  those  collected  by  Prof.  Simpson  of 
Edinburgh,  after  careful  research,  and  like  all  mathematical 
deductions,  they  are  simply  undeniable.  If  I  place  ten  apples 
before  you,  and  add  ten  to  them,  you  cannot,  if  so  disposed, 
deny  the  resultant  being  twenty,  for  it  is  a  mathematical 
fact,  not  a  matter  of  opinion.  So  with  the  statements  here 
made ;  they  are  all  open  to  examination,  and  all  susceptible 
of  mathematical  proof,  however  astounding  they  may  appear. 

This  then  is  the  system,  which  a  man  not  in  an  asylum  for 
the  insane,  dared  to  offer  to  the  world,  this  is  the  doctrine 
which  thousands  of  the  wisest  in  the  world  accepted  as  a  boon 


22  ADDRESS* 

from  heaven,  and  this  the  therapeutic  procedure  which  has 
undoubtedly  witnessed  the  recovery  of  thousands  of  persons, 
sick  with  grave  disorders,  aye,  even  with  disorders  pronounced 
incurable  by  members  of  the  profession  of  medicine.  Did  it 
cure  its  infatuated  votaries  ?  Far  from  it ;  but  it  allowed  na- 
ture to  do  so.  Some  lives  it  has  unquestionably  saved,  by 
occupying  the  therapeutic  field,  and  preventing  dangerous 
medication ;  many  it  has  undoubtedly  destroyed,  by  keeping 
from  the  bedside  the  true  physician,  who  might  have  wrested 
the  sufferer  from  the  hand  of  the  destroying  angel,  by  a  proper 
use  of  those  drugs  with  which  the  Almighty  has  endowed  our 
art. 

I  trust  that  the  tenor  of  this  discourse  will  bear  me  out  in 
the  assertion  that  I  am  not  citing  these  systems  of  charlatan- 
ism for  the  purpose  of  railing  at  or  inveighing  against  them.  Far 
from  this,  I  regard  such  systems  as  among  the  many  evils  inher- 
ent to  society,  and  which  cannot  be  expunged,  because  they 
are  absolute  necessities.  They  constitute  a  supply  meeting  a 
demand  felt  by  a  portion  of  every  community.  So  long  as  the 
minds  and  educations  of  men  remain  as  at  present  organised, 
so  long  will  there  be  those  who  crave  quackery  and  deception, 
not  only  in  medicine,  but  in  religion,  philosophy,  and  every 
other  sphere  of  human  thought.  I  merely  use  them  to  cor- 
roborate my  position,  that  the  secret  of  their  success  consists 
in  the  tendency  of  diseases  to  recovery,  and  their  appropria- 
tion of  the  credit  which  is  nature's  due  with  reference  to  the 
result. 

It  is  almost  incredible  what  unwarrantable  interference 
with  diseases  has  been  engendered  by  a  neglect  of  the  study 
of  their  natural  tendencies  and  courses.  So  marked  has  this 
been  that  it  has  built  up  systems  of  quackery  as  havens  of 
refuge  from  the  "  nimia  diligentia"  of  sincere  but  misguided 
physicians. 

Let  me  recall  to  you  a  notable  example  of  such  interference 
to  which  I  have  already  alluded.  In  1536,  Ambrose  Pare, 
then  an  unknown  youth  of  nineteen,  was  appointed  by 
Francis  I.,  of  France,  a  surgeon  in  his  army.     Anxious  to 


ADDKESS.  23 

learn,  lie  gave  strict  attention  to  the  work  of  experienced  and 
eminent  surgeons,  and  saw  them  always  pour  into  the  fresh 
wounds  occurring  in  battle,  boiling  oil.  One  evening  he  had 
under  his  care  a  number  of  wounded,  and  into  their  lace- 
rated bodies  diligently  poured  the  seething  pitch,  till  all  was 
used.  Then  his  mind  was  much  disquieted,  for  a  number  of 
wounds  remained,  into  which  no  boiling  oil  had  been  poured. 
The  next  day,  to  his  surprise,  he  found  that  the  poor  neglected 
fellows  had  done  better  than  their  more  fortunate,  but  scalded 
neighbors.  Instantly  the  genius  of  the  man  seized  upon  an 
accidental  discovery,  and  by  his  efforts  he  abolished  the  prac- 
tice in  future.  Now  the  surgeons  who  had  for  years  used 
boiling  oil  in  this  way,  were  sincere,  but  certainly  mistaken 
men ;  and  their  mistake  arose  from  not  finding  out  how 
wounds  behaved  when  let  alone.  Chance  taught  this  to 
Pare,  and  hence  an  improvement  in  his  art.  You  may  sup- 
pose that  a  parallel  drawn  between  this  occurrence,  and  any 
of  those  now  taking  place,  would  be  exaggerated;  but  it 
would  not.  There  are  hundreds  of  sincere  practitioners  to- 
day, who  are,  in  my  judgment,  pouring  boiling  oil  into 
wounds,  which  if  watched  as  Pare  watched  them,  would  be 
found  to  do  better  without  it. 

Let  me  more  clearly  lay  the  matter  before  you  by  reference 
to  some  experiments,  to  which  many  of  you  were  witnesses 
during  the  past  winter.  I  have  been  in  the  habit  in  clinical 
teaching  (as  many  others  have  done  in  different  parts  of  the 
world)  of  leaving  a  certain  number  of  cases,  which  I  felt  that 
I  could  conscientiously  allow  to  progress  without  interference, 
to  run  their  courses,  that  the  students  might  appreciate  how 
much  nature  could  do  in  effecting  a  cure.  I  shall  not  now 
weary  you  by  particulars,  but  merely  give  you  the  gross  re- 
sults to  which  such  experiments  lead. 

If  fifty  cases  of  pleurisy  (the  disease  for  which  Sydenham 
prescribed  so  vigorously)  be  placed  in  bed,  carefully  nursed, 
dieted,  guarded  from  deleterious  inflnences,  and  receive  not  a 
particle  of  medicine  of  any  kind,  the  probabilities  are  that  not 
one  case  would  end  fatally  ;  all  would  likely  recover  unless 


24  A  D  ft  ft  E  S  g  . 

some  peculiarity  of  constitution,  the  unfavorable  age  of  the 
person,  or  accidental  complication  should  alter  the  result. 

The  ancients  supposed  that  inflammations  of  the  heart, 
pericarditis  and  endocarditis,  would  always  prove  fatal,  unless 
checked  by  treatment ;  we  know  by  experiment  that  this  is  a 
mistake  ;  both  diseases  are  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases  recov- 
ered from,  leaving  the  heart  more  or  less  crippled,  it  is  true, 
but  still  not  destroying  life  as  primary  acute  attacks.  Peri- 
carditis will  as  a  very  general  rule  run  its  course,  and  even- 
tuate in  recovery,  without  any  resort  to  medication ;  and  endo- 
carditis so  often  does  so,  that  its  existence  is  commonly  not 
recognized  at  all ;  the  only  evidence  of  its  ever  having  existed 
being  found  in  its  effects  on  the  valves  of  the  heart. 

Tonsillitis,  or  Quincy,  is  a  fearful  disease  to  watch  through 
its  course ;  for  when  at  its  height,  it  appears  to  the  looker  on, 
that  death  by  strangulation  or  starvation  must  soon  put  an 
end  to  the  patient's  suffering.  The  sufferer  struggles  for 
breath,  gasps  wildly,  and  swallowing  is  often  for  days  a  mat- 
ter of  utter  impossibility.  For  this  affection,  in  time  gone 
by,  the  lancet,  and  other  equally  active  means,  were  always 
resorted  to ;  and  what  wonder  when  we  look  at  the  results  of 
the  plan ;  all  the  cases  thus  treated  recovered.  So  did  all  the 
wounds  into  which  Pare  poured  boiling  oil,  and  mark  the 
parallel  further :  when  Pare  omitted  the  oil,  still  the  wounds 
got  well,  and  I  assure  you  with  reference  to  the  worst  cases 
of  Tonsillitis,  that  if  they  be  left  without  medicine,  none  of 
them  (unless  in  some  exceptional  case,  as  of  an  old  or  very 
weak  person)  would  end  fatally.  They  look  as  if  they  would 
die,  but  they  do  not  do  so ;  they  recover. 

Scarlet  Fever  of  simple  form,  Measles,  and  even  Yarioloid, 
in  the  vast  majority  of  cases,  will  end  in  recovery  without  the 
slightest  medication. 

But  of  all  diseases  which  excite  terror  in  the  minds  of  by- 
standers, none  does  so  more  markedly  than  convulsions  in 
children.  Of  course,  the  dangers  will  generally  depend  upon 
the  cause  of  the  seizure,  but,  even  in  this  dreaded  disorder, 
the  majority  will  recover,  even  if  no  interference  be  practised. 


Another  disease  worth  instancing  in  this  connection  is 
Cholera  Morbus ;  a  pathological  series  made  up  of  a  succes- 
sion of  efforts,  on  the  part  of  offended  nature,  to  free  itself 
from  disorder.  In  this  effort  nature  generally,  nay,  we  may 
almost  say  always,  succeeds  in  effecting  a  cure,  unless  in  the 
extremes  of  age,  or  in  a  very  debilitated  patient. 

You  all  know  what  dreaded  scourges  exist  in  Typhus  and 
Typhoid  Fevers.  The  vacant  seats  at  thousands  of  hearths 
throughout  our  land  stand  solemn  witnesses  to  their  ravages. 
Read  in  the  literature  of  the  past  the  list  of  remedies  at 
various  times  regarded  as  specifics  for  these  fevers,  and  you 
will  wonder  at  its  length.  Were  I  to  write  the  drugs  advised 
during  the  last  century  in  their  management,  upon  the  walls 
before  me,  space  would  be  wanting  to  accommodate  their 
names.  Within  the  last  year  the  Commissioners  of  Public 
Charities  in  this  city,  advised  of  the  fact  that  pure  air  and 
nourishment  are  the  appropriate  remedies  for  these  affections, 
and  assured  by  the  physicians  of  Bellevue  Hospital,  that  they 
will  prove  more  amenable  to  this  treatment  than  to  any 
amount  or  kind  of  dosing,  have  placed  all  such  cases  upon  an 
island  in  the  middle  of  the  East  River,  where  thev  are  lodged 
in  pavilions,  which  admit  of  the  most  perfect  ventilation. 
The  experiment  has  been  tried  under  the  judicious  care  of  Dr. 
A.  L.  Loomis  of  this  city,  and  to  show  you  its  results,  I  read  a 
statement  received  from  him  in  reference  to  it.  "  I  have  had 
charge  of  the  Typhus  Fever  cases,"  says  Dr.  Loomis,  "  for  five 
months ;  during  this  time  not  a  particle  of  medicine  and  no 
stimulants  have  been  employed,  and  the  results  have  been  one 
death  in  every  sixteen  and  two-third  cases ;  while,  as  you  are 
aware,  the  per  centage  under  the  old  plan  was  one  in  six. 
Dr.  Murchison,  a  late  English  writer,  states  them  in  England 
as  one  in  five."  These  facts  are  certainly  most  astonishing, 
yet  here  they  stand  in  bold  relief  as  facts,  presenting  them- 
selves so  prominently  that  he  who  runs  must  read. 

But  why  prolong  the  list  ?  The  tendency  of  the  vast  major- 
ity of  diseases  is  to  recovery,  and  not  to  death.  A  few,  as  for 
example  Cancer,  Consumption,  Bright's  disease,  Hydrophobia, 


26  ADDRESS. 

and  cerebral  affections,  show  no  such  benign  tendency ;  but 
what  rational  and  unprejudiced  physician  of  to-day  will 
pretend,  that  there  are  any  medicines  which  accomplish  in 
these  affections  one-half  of  what  is  effected  by  air,  exercise, 
diet,  and  rest? 

These  are  only  the  gross  results  obtained  by  the  study  of 
the  natural  phenomena  of  diseases ;  there  are  many  others 
which  will  be  noted ;  and  when,  guided  by  the  knowledge 
thus  gained,  we  resort  to  medicines  in  similar  conditions,  we 
will  be  able  to  appreciate  their  results,  by  the  comparison  of 
the  duration  and  progress  of  aided,  and  unaided  cases. 

Without  such  knowledge,  we  are  often  blinded  by  our  own 
efforts ;  and  employing  the  too  common  reasoning  of  "post 
hoc,  ergo  propter  hoc"  attribute  to  them  credit,  which  is  not 
their  due.  I  remember  some  years  ago  a  report  being  made 
to  the  Imperial  Academy  of  France  by  a  sincere  and  in- 
dustrious member,  who  had  for  a  length  of  time  been  using  a 
remedy  with  great  success  in  a  certain  disease.  After  reading 
a  number  of  carefully  noted  cases,  he  came  to  the  conclusion 
that,  by  the  proposed  treatment,  the  disease  could  be  cured 
in  sixteen  days.  The  essay  was  much  commended,  and  a 
committee  appointed  to  investigate  the  matter.  At  a  subse- 
quent meeting  its  chairman  reported,  that  the  remedy  had 
been  fully  tested;  a  number  of  cases  had  been  treated  by  the 
proposed  plan,  and  an  equal  number  left  without  any  treat- 
ment. Those  subjected  to  the  treatment  had,  as  the  truthful 
member  had  related,  recovered  in  sixteen  days,  but  those  left 
to  nature  had  all  recovered  in  fifteen. 

Have  we  not  in  these  facts  the  true  explanation  of  the  har- 
mony of  result  between  modes  of  practice  utterly  opposed  to 
each  other  ? — of  those  of  Sydenham  and  the  physicians  of  to- 
day, of  Bouilland  and  Todd,  and  of  the  wonderful  results  of 
Perkinism,  Thompsonianism,  Hydropathy,  and  Homoeopathy  ? 
These  plans  differed  most  widely,  and  yet  the  results  were 
the  same ;  the  diseases  got  well,  some  in  spite  of  the  treat- 
ment, some  uninfluenced  by  it  on  account  of  its  inefficiency, 
and  some  by  its  help.    To  elucidate  this  matter,  let  us  suppose 


ADDRESS.  27 

a  patient  laboring  under  a  severe  attack  of  suppurative  ton- 
sillitis, or  quinsy.  The  natural  course  of  the  affection  is  to 
pass  through  a  period  which  entails  great  suffering,  and  then 
to  pass  off,  generally  by  formation  of  abscess.  Suppose  that 
Perkins's  tractors  were  employed  in  the  case ;  it  would  pass 
steadily  through  its  period  of  suffering  and  apparent  danger, 
and  in  due  time  the  patient  would  recover.  Could  we  blame 
him,  in  his  ignorance  of  what  nature  effects  in  this  disease, 
in  believing  the  tractors  a  great  remedy  for  quinsy  ? 

Or,  perchance,  the  honor  was  not  destined  for  Perkinism, 
and  that  the  patient  pins  his  faith  to  the  view  that  heaven  in- 
tended that  all  man's  ills  should  be  cured  by  water :  he  is 
wrapped,  and  douched,  and  splashed,  and  showered;  and 
still  the  inevitable  abscess  breaks,  and  still  recovery  occurs. 

Or  a  follower  of  Thompson  is  called  in :  the  sufferer  is 
nearly  liquified  with  vapor  baths,  and  dosed  with  lobelia ;  in 
spite  of  which  nature  resists  the  attack,  and  he  is  saved. 

But  perhaps  the  patient's  lines  have  fallen  in  pleasant 
places,  perhaps  he  is  under  the  gentle  sway  of  a  follower  of 
Hahnemann.  His  kind  attendant,  actuated  by  the  purest 
motives,  pours  one  drop  of  the  tincture  of  belladonna  into 
New  York  Bay,  or  Long  Island  Sound,  and  gives  the  agon- 
ized sufferer  one  drop  of  the  mixture.  It  is  only  a  question 
of  time ;  the  abscess  breaks,  and  the  grateful  patient  thanks 
a  beneficent  Providence  for  the  creation  of  Hahnemann,  and 
the  creation  of  so  much  water  on  the  earth  for  the  dilution 
of  his  medicines. 

Thus  as  all  roads  lead  to  Eome,  so  do  all  these  modes  of 
practice  lead  to  recovery.  The  "  vis  medicatrix  naturae"  has 
accomplished  a  great  result,  and  the  man  who  has  watched 
its  workings  supposes  the  result  all  due  to  him,  as  did  the  fly 
who  sat  upon  the  whirling  chariot,  crediting  himself  with  all 
the  noise  and  dust  which  it  excited. 

Prom  what  I  have  said,  thus  far,  you  may  charge  me  with 
want  of  confidence  in  the  power  and  utility  of  drugs,  and  the 
propriety  of  interference  with  disease.  In  this  you  greatly 
misconceive  me.     I  have  mentioned   a  number  of  diseases 


28  ADDRESS. 

which,  left  to  nature,  will  generally  be  recovered  from,  but  I 
do  not  advise  you  to  use  no  medicines  in  these  cases ;  I  tell 
you  that  nature,  without  medicines,  cures  them,  and  that  if 
medicines  do  not  produce  absolute  and  palpable  good  results, 
they  had  better  not  be  given.  I  go  further  than  this,  and 
recommend  you,  when  a  disease  is  progressing  favorably,  to 
let  it  alone.  But  if  by  drugs,  or  any  other  means,  you  can 
soothe  pain,  ward  off  complications,  cut  short  the  natural 
duration  of  the  malady,  or  prevent  disagreeable  sequelae,  em- 
ploy them  in  large  and  decided  doses. 

All  these  ends  I  am  convinced  they  accomplish  to  a  certain 
extent ;  nay,  more,  you  will  sometimes  see  the  well-directed 
prescription  snatch  your  patient  from  impending  death,  calm 
the  racking  agony  of  mind  as  well  as  body,  and  cause  a  prom- 
ising future  to  dawn  upon  a  gloomy  present. 

This  is  my  belief  in  drugs  rightly  used ;  but  mark  me,  gen- 
tlemen, the  idea  that  a  physician  is  sent  for  to  give  medicines 
is  a  grievous  error,  which,  even  now,  affects  society,  and 
works  great  evil.  Some  of  my  most  difficult  daily  tasks  are 
preventing  patients  from  dosing  themselves.  The  duty  of  our 
high  calling  is  to  prevent  and  cure  disease,  not  to  dole  out 
medicines.  A  patient  comes  to  you  with  palpitation  of  the 
heart,  and  you  tell  him  to  desist  from  the  abuse  of  tobacco ; 
another  with  an  irritable  stomach,  and  you  restrict  him  in  the 
use  of  alcohol ;  another  with  dyspepsia,  and  you  advise  the 
removal  of  decayed  teeth  and  the  introduction  of  artificial 
ones  ;  another  with  persistent  headache,  and  you  advise  him 
to  sleep  in  fresh  air  instead  of  foul ;  another  with  intestinal 
disorders,  and  you  recommend  his  desisting  from  the  constant 
use  of  medicines  which  are  injuring  him ;  a  pale  young  lady 
presents  herself  in  cadaverous  beauty,  and  you  order  animal 
food  of  which  she  takes  none,  exercise  which  she  has  neglect- 
ed, and  a  diminution  in  the  amount  of  green  tea  that  she  is 
in  the  habit  of  drinking  ;  a  mother  brings  a  restless,  sleepless, 
aggravating  baby,  of  which  she  has  made  a  miniature  De 
Quincey,  and  you  advise  a  supply  of  proper  nourishment 
to  the  starveling ;    are    you  not  performing  a  higher  duty 


ADDRESS 


than  drugging  them,  and  would  you  not  be  more  success- 
ful ? 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  advise  you  not  to  interfere  with  dis- 
ease ;  it  would  be  to  forswear  my  profession,  for  it  is  for  suc- 
cessful interference  with  it  that  the  physician  is  created.  I  do 
not  urge  you  to  abjure  the  use  of  drugs  when  good  can  be  ef- 
fected by  them,  but  I  do  urge  you,  and  that  fearlessly  and 
strongly,  against  the  polypharmacy,  the  everlasting,  pitiless 
dosing  which  has  built  up  systems  of  quackery,  and  caused 
them  to  nourish  at  the  expense  of  the  lives  of  the  community, 
because  they  became  havens  of  refuge  from  therapeutic  perse- 
cution. Can  you  not  appreciate  a  poor  sufferer's  flying  to  a 
charlatan  rather  than  have  the  orthodox  Pare  pour  boiling  oil 
into  his  wound,  and  can  you  not  conceive  of  one,  even  a  wise 
man,  clasping  the  knees  of  Hahnemann,  and  praying  him  to 
protect  his  helpless  pleurisy  from  the  lancet  and  linctus,  and 
blister,  and  liniment,  and  morning  draught  and  evening 
draught  of  the  accomplished  and  learned  Sydenham  ?  Look 
around  you  at  the  systems  of  charlatanism  now  existing,  and 
you  will  see  that  in  their  ranks  is  not  to  be  found  one  name 
which  has  ever  been  whispered  by  fame ;  not  one  known  by 
faintest  report  to  science,  and  this  is  not  only  so  at  our  day,  it 
has  been  so  in  all  time,  for  talent  rarely  consents  to  prostitute 
itself  to  deception.  Where  then  are  we  to  seek  with  success 
for  the  real  supporters  of  these  false  doctrines  ?  In  the  regu- 
lar profession.  Hahnemann  was  the  offspring,  not  of  science, 
not  of  truth,  but  of  the  practice  of  Sydenham. 

That  many  of  the  charlatans  of  all  ages  have  been  sincere 
men,  I  do  not  doubt :  it  is  folly  to  call  them  all  knaves.  They 
are  often  more  deluded  than  their  patients,  firmer  believers 
than  those  whom  they  mislead.  Ignorant  of  the  course  of 
disease,  when  left  to  nature's  management,  and  of  the  recupe- 
rative powers  of  the  system,  they  are  deceived  in  their  con- 
clusions as  to  the  results  effected  by  the  means  which  they 
employ.  Dr.  Hooker  entertains  no  doubt  that  Perkins  be- 
lieved in  the  truth  of  his  system,  and  I  have  as  little  that 
Hahnemann  was  thus  deluded :  but  was  the  great  Sydenham 


30  ADDEE8S. 

less  so  in  concluding  that  by  bleeding,  blistering,  cupping, 
leeching,  and  salivating  he  cured  diseases  which  experi- 
ence teaches  us  run  their  courses  to  recovery,  when  left 
alone  ? 

Again,  you  may  say,  "  If  all  systems  lead  to  recovery,  how 
does  it  really  matter  to  which  of  them  one  intrusts  himself?" 

I  reply,  that  in  the  majority  of  diseases  the  patient  will  re- 
cover, unless  in  the  hands  of  an  Indian  Thug  himself ;  but  is 
recovery  all  that  is  desired  ?  A  case  of  acute  rheumatism, 
treated  by  the  most  inefficient  means,  will  recover  probably 
in  six  weeks,  for  that  is  the  natural  duration  of  the  disease  ; 
but  would  it  not  be  to  the  sufferer's  interest  and  comfort  to 
have  the  period  of  torture  diminished  one-half,  to  avoid  the 
severe  pain  and  risk  of  death  attendant  upon  these  attacks, 
and  to  rise  from  his  bed  saved  from  heart  disease,  the  so  fre~ 
quent  sequel  of  the  affection  ? 

He  who  shoots  the  foaming  rapids  under  the  guidance  of 
a  pilot  who  forever  teazes  the  rudder  is  in  great  danger  : 
would  he  be  in  less,  to  pass  the  perilous  spot  without  a  rud- 
der, leaving  the  ship  to  the  course  of  the  current  ?  No  ; 
either  plan  would  be  fraught  with  dangers,  which  would  be 
avoided  by  a  careful  hand,  that  touched,  even  strained  the 
rudder  when  needful,  but  trusted  to  the  current's  course  when 
it  swept  him  in  the  right  direction. 

A  short  time  since  Dr.  "W.  A.  Hammond,  late  Surgeon- 
General  of  the  Army  of  the  United  States,  issued  an  order 
prohibiting  the  use  of  calomel  and  antimony  by  the  surgeons 
in  its  employ.  What  a  commentary  was  this  on  the  use  of 
these  drugs,  at  our  day !  Do  you  suppose  that  a  man  of  Dr. 
Hammond's  capacity  and  experience  regarded  calomel  and 
antimony  as  useless  or  injurious  agencies  ?  !STo  ;  he  accorded, 
I  am  sure,  great  remedial  virtues  to  each  of  them ;  but  the 
logical  mind  of  the  man  led  him  to  weigh  the  good  which 
they  could,  with  the  injury  that  they  did  accomplish,  and 
having  no  means  by  which  to  prevent  his  subordinates  from 
their  abuse,  he  suppressed  them,  preferring  that  their  ad- 
vantages should  be  lost  rather  than  that  those  intrusted  to  his 


ADDRESS.  31 

care  should  suffer  from   the  great  evils  which  they  might 
inflict. 

In  the  midst  of  so  much  doubt  and  diversity  of  opinion,  where 
shall  the  rational  physician  of  to-day  stand,  untrammeled  by 
the  prejudices  of  a  by-gone  age,  and  stimulated  to  investiga- 
tion and  progress  by  the  great  medical  discoveries  of  the  last 
half  century  ?  For  him  there  is  a  vantage  ground  between 
the  two  extremes,  neither  verging  towards  meddlesome  inter- 
ference on  the  one  hand,  nor  imbecile  neglect  on  the  other. 
Familiarized  with  the  true  nature  of  diseases,  and  recognising 
fully  his  own  power,  and  (what  is  equally  important)  his  own 
weakness,  he  will  approach  his  duties  with  the  knowledge 
most  likely  to  aid  him  in  the  relief  of  suffering  humanity. 

Such  knowledge  always  begets  power.  Armed  by  this, 
and  discarding  all  mystery,  all  deception,  both  of  himself  and 
others,  he  may,  at  some  time,  crown  the  efforts  of  a  well-spent 
life,  by  the  proud  satisfaction,  the  undying  glory,  of  increasing 
the  resources  of  his  God-like  art. 


■        :/M 


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